Category: Corporate Games

I’ve seen this unfold
in corporate
and I’m watching this unfold
in the Presidential Election.

One candidate
(for President
or a job
or whatever the competition is)
isn’t the most intelligent person
in the group.
The other candidates
allow him to talk,
thinking he’ll blunder
and eliminate himself
from consideration.

And he usually does blunder,
many times,
but offsetting this
is the fact that he has the floor.
He has more face time
with people.
People might not respect him
but they know him.

MANY people
are afraid of the unknown.
They’ll align with
‘the devil they know’
over a stranger.

Go ahead.
Allow your competition
to make a fool of himself
but ensure
you have as much time
with the decision makers
as he does.

David Cameron resigned
as Prime Minister
after Britain voted
to leave the EU.

I understand why he would do that.
He represents the people.
That’s his job.
And, after the vote,
he realizes
he’s out of touch
with what his people,
both his employers and his customers,
want.

As business builders,
it is easy to find ourselves
in the same situation.

We sell baby clothes
but our own kids
are now teenagers.

We manufacture dairy products
but we’re now lactose intolerant.

We sell to low income customers
but we now live
in a middle class gated community.

What do we do?

One option is the David Cameron option.
We step aside
and allow someone more in touch
with our customers
to lead the company.

OR

We put in the work
to stay in touch with our customers.
We hang out where they do.
We watch the TV shows they do.
We learn everything
we can about them.

To increase the odds
of success,
the leader of your company
HAS to stay in touch with your customers.
Either give the job to someone else
or make staying in touch
part of your job.

One of my upper manager buddies
is battling Human Resources
because a co-worker complained
that he called her ‘hon’.

This buddy didn’t know
this bothered her.
He would have stopped
if she had addressed it.
(I know because he stopped
when I, as a friend, addressed it.)

Their relationship would have changed
but it would have survived.
This friend would likely have
respected her even more
for standing up
for what she wanted.
(This happened with us.)

Instead of talking to him directly,
however,
she went to Human Resources.
This destroyed not only
her relationship with the manager
but it will likely destroy
her relationship with everyone else.

Everyone now knows
that if she has an issue with anything,
she’ll involve Human Resources
(and, by doing that,
the rest of the company).

Once you involve others
in an issue or disagreement
(without first talking to that person),
you’re destroying relationships
and trust.
Forever.

Think before you do this.

I confess to
having taken mental health days
while I was in corporate.
I’d call in sick
when I wasn’t truly sick,
taking a day off
to think about things
and to recuperate.

I sincerely believe
that going to work angry
will do more harm
to a career
than taking a day off.

BUT you should stay home
and stay away from social media.

“In a new CareerBuilder poll*,
31% of bosses confessed to
checking up on absentees
-some asking for a doc’s note,
others calling them at home.
Twenty-four percent said
they’d gone on Facebook or Twitter
and found ‘sick’ employees sounding
-and looking-
just fine.
And 15% admitted to
driving by a no-shows house.
(We hope you don’t work
for one of those.)

If bosses did bust AWOL-ers?
Half chewed them out,
while 22% fired them.”

Stay off social media
during sick days
(legit or not)

And, if your boss is checking up
on you,
consider it a sign that
you’re not doing your job
while you ARE at work.

* Jan/Feb 2015
Men’s Fitness

According to a recent study
by Leadership IQ*,
employees who spend
a minimum of six hours a week
with their bosses
are more inspired, engaged
and motivated
than employees who spend
less time with their bosses.
These doesn’t have to be
working hours.
It could be lunches, golf,
other non-work activities.

This applies to other relationships also.
One of my buddies landed
a major sales deal with a customer
because he spent more time
than the competition with them.
Their products were similar.
Their relationships weren’t.

Invest time
in your important relationships.

*December Southwest magazine

I’ve had some idiotic bosses,
bosses who snagged their jobs
by being related to the owner,
sucking up to the right people
or other iffy means.

But I didn’t badmouth them
(at work)
because, hey, I was the idiot
working for the idiot.

As Annie McKee,
coauthor of Primal Leadership,
shares

“You need to be respectful.
If you badmouth your manager,
it’s going to reflect badly on you.
People notice and
worry you’ll talk about them
the same way.”

Don’t badmouth your boss.

I started my business career
in auditing.
One of the things we looked for
was employees who didn’t take vacation.
These folks were automatically
looked at with suspicion.
Why?
Because employees who steal from companies
don’t want anyone doing their jobs
while they’re on vacation.

I ALWAYS used my allotted vacation time.
I sometimes used it
to go to a convention
my company wouldn’t give me approval for
and
I’d always look at competitive products
in the area I was vacationing.

Bob Corliss,
CEO of Robert Talbott, Inc.,
shares

“Worried about appearances?
The company approved your time off.
Just remind your boss who will cover for you;
the boss is now happy.
So go, relax,
and then come back re-energized.”

Use your vacation time.

As yet another executive
is busted
for lying on his resume
about having a college degree,
business builders should ask themselves
“Is being college educated
a must-have
for their employees?”

In some fields,
the answer is absolutely
‘YES!’

I’m a designated accountant.
My four years of post high school education
focused on accounting rules
and situations.
I then studied even more
to secure my designation.
I’m required,
by my professional membership,
to keep current,
and when I was practicing,
I relied heavily on this training,
a training almost impossible to replicate
without formal education.

I would prefer to hire
an accountant
with a degree/designation.

Clearly, it makes no sense
to prefer to hire
a communications expert
with a college degree.
The senior executive at Wal-mart
was doing a great job
without a degree
(which is why he was being promoted).

Are you valuing a college degree
more than talent, hard work or experience?
Why?

The colors we wear
and surround ourselves with
matter.
They influence moods
and change behaviors.

Which color not to wear?
Orange.

“According to a CareerBuilder study
of more than 2,000 HR professionals
and hiring managers,
orange is the worst colour
to wear to a job interview
and is the hue most likely
to be associated with someone
who is unprofessional.
About a quarter of respondents (23%)
recommended wearing blue,
followed by black (15%)”*

Avoid wearing orange.

*March CPA Magazine

I’m an introvert,
someone who is drained
by being with other people.

This doesn’t mean I’m quiet.
I’ve learned long ago
that quiet people are often overlooked.

This also doesn’t mean
I don’t have an executive presence.

As Nick Marsh,
managing director of
Harvey Nash Executive Search Asia Pacific,
shares

“Many introverted people feel
they’re at a disadvantage,
but you can have strong executive presence
and be the introverted type.
Executive presence doesn’t mean
you have to be the most extroverted person
in a room.
Quite often, it’s the exact opposite.
Executive presence is being
the person in the room
that people gravitate toward,
and when that person makes a remark,
everyone else is quiet,
since they value their thoughts
and respect them.”

Stop using being an introvert
as an excuse.
You can be as successful
as any extrovert.